Our Mango Tree

How cool is it that we have a big mango tree in our backyard? It’s very cool to us. Living in New Jersey our entire lives, mangos were the epitome of a tropical fruit. Wherever they came from, it was surely far away from New Jersey.

Miami is Tropical

Biscayne National Park in Miami, Florida

You don’t need to visit South America to be in the tropics, South Florida has tropical weather. The unbearable humid and wet season runs from June to September. I haven’t lived through the rainy season yet, so this first year will be interesting. This tropical climate is perfect for fruit trees such as mango, orange and papaya.

3 Bedroom House for Rent (with Mango Tree)

When we first moved into our rental home in the Miami suburbs, our landlord told us that one of the big trees in the backyard is a mango tree. Mango is our favorite fruit, for both us, so you can imagine how exciting that sounded to us. In our minds, this was a feature that added to the house. A few months after moving into the house, baby mangos started to appear hanging from limbs. Having no idea of the fruit’s growing and ripening time, we waited patiently. 3 months later, and it’s raining mangos.

A Day's Worth of Mangos

Now that the mangoes are ripening, turning shades of red and yellow, we can see that our yard isn’t that unique. From our backyard we can spot about 7 other giant mango trees.

Raining Mangos

Our Mango Tree in the Backyard

With over 10 mangos falling a day, what can we possibly do with them? Honestly, if you have ideas, let us know. The mango tree is a time sucker, but it’s still pleasant to us. Our tree borders our neighbors yard and they receive a good share of falling mangos, but they aren’t fond of the tree. I cringe when I see 20 or so rotting mangos in their yard. When they aren’t home, we jump over the fence and try to find some that are still edible.

Mango Tree Nuisance

It may be hard to believe, but the mango tree can be a backyard nuisance. We scan the yard every chance we get looking for fallen fruit. If that mango is left more than 2 hours on the ground, sow bugs and many others will have invaded it. And if you leave them for over a day, you will have created an insect haven. Add dozens of them and your backyard becomes bug infested. This is the time consuming part, and why our neighbor hates the tree. If you aren’t out in your yard constantly picking up the fallen fruit and keeping it or discarding it, it can get nasty. Since we love the fruit, we out there a lot, and probably save about 75% of the fallen ones. The others are taken by the bugs and cats.

Mango Meals

Cut Up Mangos As a Snack All the Time

Aracely cuts up the mangos every day and freezes the slices for future use. I am not sure if we will have enough room in our freezer for all of them, it’s still too early to tell. The ones that are extremely ripe and soft get eaten immediately. So what’s on our list of meals so far?

Breakfast

Mango smoothies

Mango in yogurt

Lunch

Sliced mango

Desert

Mango mousse

Mango Mousse Dessert

For dinner we will be having fish with a mango citrus salsa. I have done some research on the web and there are still plenty of more mango recipes to experiment with.

Wikipedia: Though India is the largest producer of mangoes (Pakistan being the largest exporter), it accounts for less than one percentof the international mango trade, consuming most of its own output.

Our mango tree may not be unique in Miami, but it’s still special to us.

I just love mangoes , when we moved NT Australia at the of my ake was a mango tree but it is not inside our fence. Since then I have taken care of it..everytime someone want some they ask permission from us so we just claim it. Lovely fruit and we are growing more…..

What are your thoughts on picking up fallen mangoes that are directly located in somebody’s yard?

I was walking along the road and noticed numerous mangoes fallen from a tree that landed near the sidewalk. The tree was inside a wall to a neighborhood that I cannot access, so I cannot ask permission from the owners to collect fallen fruit. I noticed several rotting mangoes so it seems that nobody is collecting them. Would it be acceptable behavior to collect fallen mangoes in this situation?

A fallen mango will spoil in less than 24 hours. In places like Miami, where we live, it can spoil in a few hours. The mighty bugs will bore a hole in it quickly if not picked up. So, go ahead, take some home if they are ripe and eat away.

Hey there,
Have you tried juicing mangoes? I have a small tree in st pete and I juice
every day (omega juicer). Mango juice is awesome. I grew up in Miami and had a tree like that in our backyard. I remember racing to get to the awesome ripe yellow mangoes before the squirrels did . lol

Just stumbled across your article. I found it humorous as you spoke of the falling mango’s, but as an Ohioan… i can say that having a free (or inexpensive) supply of fresh mangos I think might be worth the effort, so looking at that ripe fruit hanging from the tree makes me very very jealous lol!

I miss the variety of mangoes. I came from Indonesia, where there are many different kind of it. I never see my favourite kind anywhere else… Also, we love to eat our mango with a spicy sweet sauce made of chili, palm sugar, and peanut among other things, crushed together. I miss it big time!

That post is like moaning about your diamond shoes and the size of your wallet!! 😉 That sounds totally brilliant. If you’re having problems with your mango tree you could:
a) invite me over to build a tree house in your tree, live in said tree house and farm it for you in return for daily beer, some clean pants and the occassional BBQ ribs,
b) point a but allow my girlfriend to live with me in the treehouse
c) the same as point b but instead you live in tree house and we move into your house?

I used to gather up the mangos from the tree in my yard in Kailua and if they were overripe I would squeeze them into ziplock bags, freeze them and make perfect mango margaritas all year long. Oh, I miss my mangos.

Mango is my husband’s favorite fruit (well, it may tie with white guava…)! Getting fresh mangoes here in Ireland is a pricey undertaking! We frequently visit a spice shop that supplies the Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi themed restaurants to buy mango and guava juice. We also pay through the nose for dried mango at some of the natural food shops (we won’t buy it if it was dried or preserved with chemicals).

So… have you considered making mango juice that you could seal up for the time when mango season is over? Or drying slices? We have a dehydrator, but it’s back with all our other kitchen stuff in Rome. You can also make some pretty affordable DIY dehydrators (Google search)! I don’t know if mango preserves is viable, but I know I would totally eat mango jam and jelly if I found it!

I have planted a bunch of garden vegetables too, but it’s tough to grow anything but fruit trees. The sandy insect infested soil here doesn’t like veggies! So, the mangos are still the bomb in the yard. I don’t think anything else can top that big tree.

I think mango is my favorite fruit. I have to admit, I was so eager to eat them initially that we tried eating ones that weren’t ripe, but had fallen. We learned a lesson. We have to be patient, because the good ones will eventually fall. If we get early storms, many will fall off before they get time to mature.

A mango tree in your backyard is quite common here in Queensland, Australia as well. I don’t have one myself, however I know people who do and some make a heap of extra money selling them each season. Even though Australia produces most of it’s own mangos, they still sell for $3-$4 each in the shops. So if you own a mango tree you can sell them for a smaller price and people will buy them from you 🙂

Yea, you are right, you can always make money selling them. A lot of people sell them on the street corners here. In the grocery store they are still $1USD each, even though the trees are around. But, like I said you have to be on top of it to get them before the bugs do.

try dried mango, they are super great during winter, so i suggest you go buy a dehydrator and start making lots of dried mango and save them for storage, you can give them as gifts, or sell them. I honestly loved dried mango you can like keep them for more than 5 years and they don’t go spoil, and if a disaster comes, you’ll be glad you have those dried mango.